cochlear

Amazon and Cochlear have teamed up on a new feature that streams audio directly from Fire TV devices to hearing implants, using the Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) protocol. It’s the first time a smart TV device can stream sound directly to a hearing implant processor. Cochlear says television was the company’s natural next step after working on streaming audio from smartphones to hearing aids. “TV is a big part of our lives,” said Ryan Lopez, a product management and marketing director at Cochlear. “We get our…

The installation of a cochlear implant is a tricky procedure, in which certain nerves may be damaged if the surgeon isn't sufficiently careful. A new "smart" surgical drill is designed to help, by automatically shutting off if it gets too close to those nerves.The device is designed for use with an existing image-guided, robotic-assisted system, in which the implant is inserted into the inner ear through a narrow channel that's drilled in the skull. That channel has to be very precisely located, as it must pass through a…